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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Seized

Seized: A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters by Max Hardberger

Synopsis from B&N

Seized throws open the hatch on the shadowy world of maritime shipping, where third-world governments place exorbitant liens against ships, pirates seize commercial vessels with impunity, crooks and con artists reign supreme on the docks and in the shipyards—and hapless owners have to rely on sea captain Max Hardberger to recapture their ships and win justice on the high seas.

A ship captain, airplane pilot, lawyer, teacher, writer, adventurer, and raconteur, Max Hardberger recovers stolen freighters for a living. In Seized, he takes us on a real-life journey into the mysterious world of freighters and shipping, where fortunes are made and lost by the whims of the waves. Desperate owners hire Max Hardberger to “extract” or steal back ships that have been illegitimately seized by putting together a mission-impossible team to sail them into international waters under cover of darkness. It’s a high stakes assignment—if Max or his crew are caught, they risk imprisonment or death.

Seized takes readers behind the scenes of the multibillion dollar maritime industry, as he recounts his efforts to retrieve freighters and other vessels from New Orleans to the Caribbean, from East Germany to Vladivostak, Russia, and from Greece to Guatemala. He resorts to everything from disco dancing to women of the night to distract the shipyard guards, from bribes to voodoo doctors to divert attention and buy the time he needs to sail a ship out of a foreign port without clearance. Seized is adventure nonfiction at its best.

My Thoughts

Seized is quite an exciting and enlightening read! I had no idea that there were ships being detained unlawfully let alone rescued from these unlawful detentions. My maritime knowledge is quite miniscule but with Max's descriptions I was able to follow along with his adventures quite well. Every chapter was another adventure from Max's life and by the end of each chapter I would find myself on the edge of my seat hoping the job would end safely. I felt as though I was on board along with Max and could feel the danger he was experiencing.

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About Me

I am a working mom of 3 young adults. I am also mom to 4 cats and 1 dog. I love to read and always have a book close at hand. I like to read many different genres of books. Our life can get pretty crazy but I always find time to escape into a good book. If you could see my pile of TBR books you would agree that I am a true bookaholic!

If you are a publisher or an author and you would like me to review your book feel free to contact me at bthgordon[at]yahoo[dot]com. Along with my blog, I also post reviews on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads and Librarything. I mostly read fiction, christian fiction, historical fiction but do occasionally read some non-fiction.